Please join me in rejoicing in Rwanda’s vision and the hope that the people’s vision will spread far and wide…

Rwanda is working on a “green city,” in Kigali city. The
plan is to have the 2.3 square miles allocated to efficient factories, sustainable
housing and green cars. The estimated cost? $5 billion, according to the African Exponent.

A project
of this scale considers many factors. The “Rwanda
Green City Pilot Project”
covers every environmental concern and is created in a sustainable way. The
project has developed its own “Pillars of Green Urbanism” that the project
follows and can be easily piloted in other cities.

The
“green city” will have all the infrastructure and services of a city, but each part
will be eco-friendly. Electric vehicles, bicycle lanes, biogas, forests,
environmental waste treatment are all part of the city planning process and
will be part of the final city. The government hopes the city will lead to job
creation, improved sanitation and public transport access.

There are
two main projects happening on the site. The first, “Cactus Green Park,” is a 410 house
development that meets environmental standards. This will be a pilot for other
urban planning green building projects. Second, green affordable housing will be added
to the city. Future phases will include green office and commercial buildings.

As part
of the pilot, the project will track the metrics it has developed.
“Key” metrics include avoided CO2 emissions and green jobs created.

Kigali
has a new mayor, Pudence Rubingisa. In an interview in September, 2019, he spoke about the need for a Green City, “Now,
why do we need green development? This will help cope up not only with the
climate change issue but also the urbanisation that is really affecting the
city in a way. That is why we need to start thinking of a green city and
the key major factors include all Rwandans being or having that environmental
responsiveness and understanding. We need to utilise land properly, be
innovative and use less polluting materials.”